If you ask Lincoln what he wants for dinner, 10/10 times he’ll say “burgers“. (ICYWW, Gwen will say “pasta” and Cam will say “I don’t know“. Guess which child is my most easy going when it comes to dinner? HA! ;) )
That said, I make burgers for dinner a lot, and while I’ve mastered pan frying burgers (we don’t grill a ton), I dread making them. It’s such a mess! Between the five of us we go through at least seven patties and by the time they’re all cooked up, the stove top and counters are slick with splattered grease and I’ve got a giant cast iron skillet to let cool down before hand scrubbing. Which, let’s be real, isn’t going to happen until the following day.
FRIENDS THERE’S AN EASIER WAY! BAKED BURGERS – WHEE!!!!
Ahem. That is to say, Baked Cheeseburgers have completely changed burger night at our house! Not only is there ZERO mess but I have my hands free for the 20 minutes they take to bake to whip up a side dish and gather burger toppings. Plus my entire family likes these baked burgers better than pan fried, which is saying a lot because we really love our pan fried burgers!
Oven Baked Burgers
The first time I made baked burgers I fully anticipated them coming out of the oven soggy and grey, but that’s not the case at all. These burgers are super tender and juicy, and again, HANDS OFF. No need to flip the patties, no cooking spray – just place them onto an aluminum foil and parchment paper lined baking sheet then send them off into the oven. Goodbye. Don’t call me I’ll call you.
I like to season the ground beef burgers with an easy homemade seasoning blend using ingredients I bet you’ve already got on hand. I’ll share the blend below, but know that you can use whatever you like instead.
How Long Do Burgers Take to Cook in the Oven?
I use 2lbs ground beef to create eight burger patties, so each burger is 1/4lb. That said, eight 1/4lb burgers only take 20 minutes to reach 160 degrees in a 375 degree oven. This a true 30 minute meal – 10 minutes to season then shape the burgers, and 20 minutes to cook.
What Kind of Ground Beef to Use
It’s true that fat = flavor, but I prefer to use lean ground beef for oven baked burgers. The patties don’t shrink and there’s less mess. Actually there’s zero mess, like I mentioned! I tested these burgers with 90/10 and 97/3 ground beef and preferred 90/10. Both fat blends came out extremely tender and juicy, but the 90/10 had a bit more flavor.
If you decide to go with a fattier ground beef, I’d place the burger patties on a wire rack on the baking sheet so they don’t sit in grease.
Our Favorite Toppings
Like I said, I like to spend the 20 minutes the burgers take to bake to make a side dish – usually a fresh and healthy salad, although these french fries and sweet potato fries are pretty irresistible – and prep the burger toppings. Here are our favorite toppings:
- Sauted garlic butter mushrooms
- Oven Bacon
- Sliced white onion or red onion
- Fresh tomato
- Fresh lettuce
- Pickles
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Mayonnaise (TRY IT!)
How to Soften Gluten Free Buns
Let’s be real, gluten free buns are usually lacking in the soft and squishy department, but I have two tricks to make them more appetizing:
- Toast the buns cut side up under the broiler until they’re golden brown and softened. Top with a cheeseburger patty and toppings then eat immediately.
- Place a baked burger patty onto the bun then wrap in foil and place inside the hot oven for a few minutes. Softens them right up! We do this with both with my gluten free bun and the regular hamburgers buns the kids and Ben eat. Such a game changer!
Or you can always wrap the oven burgers in iceberg lettuce for a low carb bunless burger. It’s actually really good. :)
How to Cook Burgers in the Oven
Step 1: Season the Beef
Start by adding ground beef to a large bowl with my easy burger seasoning blend, or you can use whatever your favorite blend is. Here’s what’s in my mix:
- Dried minced onion
- Dried minced garlic
- Fennel seeds that have been crushed (I place them inside a small baggie then crush with a meat mallet).
- Salt
- Black pepper
Mix the beef and seasonings with your hands until just combined.
Step 2: Shape the Mixture into Patties
Divide the seasoned beef mixture into quarters then each quarter in half. Use your hands to shape 8 burger patties then place them on a sheet pan that’s been lined with foil and a piece of parchment paper. The parchment paper helps prevent splatters, in my experience.
Step 3: Bake the Burgers then Top with Cheese
Bake the hamburgers for 20-25 minutes, or until they register 160 degrees with a meat thermometer, then place American cheese slices (or whatever you like best – cheddar cheese is great too!) on top of each patty and slide the pan back into the oven until melted – just a minute or so.
Step 4: Toast Hamburger Buns then Add Toppings
That’s all she wrote! Transfer the cheeseburger patties to toasted hamburger buns, or try that foil-wrapped warming trick I mentioned (DROOL), then top with all the fixin’s and dig in. I hope you love these EASY, tender, and totally delicious baked cheeseburgers – enjoy!
More Tasty Burger Recipes
- Mushroom Swiss Burgers
- Chicken Fajita Cheeseburgers
- Italian Sausage and Peppers Cheeseburgers
- Chicago Style Italian Burgers
- Homemade Brat Burgers
- Chicken Caesar Burgers
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How to Cook Burgers in the Oven
Description
Skip the mess of pan frying burgers and bake them instead! I'll show you how to cook burgers in the oven for the perfect burger, every time.
Ingredients
- 2lbs ground beef, 90/10 or 93/7 fat recommended
- 8 buns
- 8 slices American cheese
- For the burger seasoning:
- 2 teaspoons dried minced onion
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon dried minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed finely
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees then line a half sheet pan with foil and place a piece of parchment paper on top. Set aside.
- Add ground beef to a large mixing bowl then sprinkle burger seasoning ingredients on top and mix to combine (alternatively you could use your own burger seasoning). Divide the mixture into quarters then divide each quarter into two to create a total of eight burger patties. Place patties onto prepared baking sheet then bake for 20-25 minutes or until burgers reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees.
- Place a slice of cheese onto each burger patty then return to the oven for 1 minute to let the cheese melt. Transfer cheeseburgers to buns then serve.
- Leave a comment and star rating if you loved the recipe! Thank you for considering!
Notes
- I like to toast gluten free buns under the broiler for a few minutes to soften before placing a burger patty inside, OR place the baked cheeseburger patty onto a bun then wrap in foil and place inside the oven to soften for 3-4 minutes.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
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Can’t wait to try these. I always put mayo on the bottom bun and the burger right on top of the mayo. Saw this tip on an Alton Brown show and he said the mayo mixes with the burger juice to form a savory sauce.
Ooo, love that – love mayo on a burger anyway, and that’s a great tip to place it on the bottom bun vs the top!
It’s often recommended to put a little dimple in the center of burger patties to prevent them from puffing up in the middle. Is this required when baking them?
It’s not. :) You can if you like though!
my son is happy today, I made it for a burger in this easy way. thank you!
Oh that’s amazing!! So glad you all enjoyed, Elena. :)
These are the best! My husband kept saying how good they were. I added Montreal Steak seasoning to my meat and it was perfect. Game.Changer.
SO glad you all loved them, Taryn! We make them pretty much weekly!
This is the hack I never knew I needed! I live in a college apartment and never am able to cook my own burgers, usually, my Dad grills them for us at home. I will definitely add this to my dinner rotations for the rest of the semester!
Perfect! I hope it’s a winner for you, Anna!
Kristin, have you ever made slider sized burgers using this method? I’m guessing 1/3 cup would be a good size burger and bake for 15-17 minutes. Your thoughts, please. Thanks!
Hi Nancy! I think that’s a great place to start – you can always slice through one to see if it’s still pink in the center after that amount of time!
Just curious, why the parchment paper on top of the foil?
It helps to keep the fat from splattering. :)
Best way to cook burgers!
Woo! So glad they were a hit, Maggie!
These were so great! Easiest burgers I ever made. So moist and evenly cooked through. I think I actually preferred them to the BBQ version – but I won’t tell my husband that :)
YAY!! My husband said that too – I couldn’t believe it! So glad these were a hit in your house, Karine!
This recipe is just what I was looking for. I refuse to fry anything on the stove. If I decide to make a smaller patty for a slider-sized bun, would I need to reduce the cooking time? Thank you.
It depends on the final size, but if you were to let’s say make 8 patties out of 1lb ground beef, instead of 4, I’d start checking internal temperature around 15 minutes or so!
This sounds like such a great option! can’t wait to try it. Have you tried this method with either turkey burgers, or the frozen pre-made burger patties you can get at Costco, etc?
I haven’t tested with either though I think both turkey and frozen beef patties would take just a few minutes longer!
Wow…game changer! We live burgers on the grill, but there are a couple months here in Michigan where the weather isn’t always cooperating! We dislike pan fried burgers, but I’ll have to try this. I generally make several pounds of seasoned meat into patties, then freeze. Do you think I could put them in the oven frozen, or should I thaw first?
I think you could bake them right from frozen – maybe just tack on an extra 5 minutes or so (depending on how thick the patties are)!
Gurrrrl, that works great! Great taste and no mess. Thanks!
Wooot!!! So glad they were a hit, Deana! Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
I knew I’d come across oven-fried burger instructions here! I’ll be doing this next time because they look wonderful…and who can argue with “easier”? Thanks, Kristin. Best site ever for recipes.
You made my day, Jayla, thank you so much for the kind words!! You really can’t argue with easier – especially when they’re so delicious. I hope you love them. :)
We started making our burgers in the air fryer, which is perfect for up to ~4 burgers. Looking forward to trying the oven method when we have a larger group and don’t want to fire up the grill.
It’s perfect for a crowd or entertaining!
These are a game changer! They turned out so delicious and the best part was the EASY clean up. Very much kid approved too.
Nothing better than balling up that foil and throwing it away – clean up, DONE! So glad you guys enjoyed these – thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
O.M.G.This post about oven-baked burgers has to be one of your top 10 most helpful posts! Serious game-changer! I only pan fry (grilling loses all the yummy fatness) and I use a foil tent to keep the grease at bay. It’s really not that messy… But, the time you save doing it in the oven is what I’m really all about! Yay! My kids are strange. LOL. They only love Costco frozen patties. No hand-formed goodness for them. Hey, they’re 8, 7 and 5. I keep thinking they’ll outgrow it one of these days, am I right? Anyway, when I pay fry them, I can only get 3 at a time. So, it’s a lot of time wasted cooking and doing 2 – 3 batches each time. To get 8 done in one 20-minute setting, while I do other things is amazing! Some questions before I try this out: 1) since I use frozen patties, do you think I have to vary the time? When I pan fry frozen, it only takes me 4 minutes per side to get medium pinkness. I guess I’ll do trial and error and let you know! and 2) I wish you’d shown a cross section photo of the burger. Was wondering if there’s still pink inside after 20 minutes or do you prefer well done burgers? That’s it for questions. Thanks again! Will be trying this for sure come our weekly burger night.
That was me too – having to pan fry 8 patties in two batches so our eating was staggered – hate it!! You should be able to bake them from frozen just fine – maybe add 5-10 extra minutes to the cook time. Check out the second photo in this post for a cross section of the burger!! :D
What are your favorite gluten free hamburger buns?
Hi Judy! These are Canyon Bakehouse buns – I like Franz GF buns too if I can find them!
Thank you for sharing this! I never thought to cook burgers in the oven. I was debating on what to make with the pound of ground beef thawing in the fridge today and so I went to your sight for some inspiration and there it was. They turned out amazing! I lettuce wrapped them and served with a side of sweet potato fries. So good!
Oh my gosh, perfect timing!! I’m so glad they were a hit, and yes please to sweet potato fries!
While I’m not opposed to grilling in the winter, it’s just a hassle with all the Iowa snow! But cleaning up our griddler is a pain too. I’m so excited for this option! Plus all the burgers will be done at the same time. That’s a win win.
Yes!! Our grill is down on the basement level of our house, accessible only by a flight of stairs that currently has 10″ of snow on it. Just not happening! I hope you love how these turn out!